Shumlin Says Proposal Could Squeeze VT Out Of Nuclear Waste Dump

(Host)
The dry plains of west Texas
are supposed to be the final resting place for tons of low-level nuclear trash.
Vermont and Texas have exclusive rights to the proposed waste site
under an agreement reached 16 years ago.

But
the commission overseeing the dump wants to open up the site to 36 other
states.

That
possibility worries Governor-elect Peter Shumlin. As VPR's John Dillon reports,
Shumlin says Vermont could get squeezed out if other states have access to
the nuclear waste site.

(Dillon)
Back in the 1990s Vermont and Texas planned ahead and signed an interstate compact for
low level nuclear waste. The deal says Texas will host the dump, and Vermont is supposed to get 20 percent of the space.

But
just days after the November election, the commission overseeing the project voted
to propose a new rule that would open up the site to other states. It was a
controversial decision, with some on the panel warning that the vote was being rushed.

(Gregory) "I am convinced this is too
much, too soon, too fast."

(Dillon)
That's Texas commissioner Bob Gregory speaking out against the
proposal at meeting in Midland, Texas, last month.

Gregory
told the two Vermont commissioners that Vermont could lose its space in the dump if it was made
available to nuclear plants in other states.

(Gregory) "I want you all to know that
these things are being discussed and they're being said, and one day if Vermont comes up and
says: ‘Where's our volume, where's our capacity?' And it is no more, that at
least it was discussed."

(Dillon)
Steve Wark was also in Midland that day. Wark is deputy public service commissioner
and is one of two Vermonters who serve on the eight-member Low Level Waste
Commission.

Wark
and the other Vermonter on the panel - state nuclear engineer Uldis Vanags -
were the swing votes in favor of the proposal to allow waste from other states.
Wark told the November meeting that he's aware of the implications for Vermont.

(Wark) "We definitely appreciate raising
these issues for Vermont. We see them
as important to Vermont. We wanted
to protect our space. However, we do believe the rule meets all of Vermont's needs."

(Dillon)
But Governor-elect Peter Shumlin is not convinced. Shumlin says Vermont will need the Texas dump when Vermont Yankee is decommissioned.

(Shumlin) "There's going to be a race
for space, and the first in wins."

(Dillon)
And Shumlin questions the timing of the vote - which came two months before he
gets to replace the Douglas administration appointees on the panel.

(Shumlin) "My view is that the folks who
are voting and scrambling before I become governor, frankly, to ensure that all
the other states get access to our waste site are not thinking of Vermonters."

(Dillon)
But Wark said in an interview that Vermont has a solid guarantee to the space under the new
rule.

(Wark) "Our space is protected first,
regardless of what else comes in from any other state."

(Dillon)
Wark said allowing other nuclear plants to use the site will lower the cost overall.
He said the proposal was under discussion for months, and that the vote was not
rushed through before the change in administrations.

But
a final vote on the rule could take place before Shumlin takes office on
January 6.